This is an apple sweetened preserve with strong strawberry flavour and a hint of cinnamon. It’s delicious on toast, cheese or even a garnish on dessert. However, if you are a sweet tooth, this may not be for you.
Late last year, JT and I decided to hunker down and lose the weight we put on in 2016, start date January 3, 2017. I don’t know about you, but it keeps getting more and more difficult to shed those pesky pounds. So over the last few weeks, we have been dry and on a very strict regiment. I’ve joined a doctor supervised program that I’ve had much success with in the past and I am happy to report, I am doing rather well. At this rate, I should reach my goal by March! I also bought a fit bit zip, so as corny as it sounds, I am getting in my 10,000 steps, a day! We got a bit lazy after our trip to Europe last fall, so it feels great to get back on track.
The diet we subscribe to has you eating real food (in moderated proportions) so it will be easy to keep up the practice even after we reach our goals. Having said that, there are a few things that I miss because the preferred brands contain aspartame or some other chemical sugar that I decided many years ago to avoid like the plague. So, in this simple post, I present to you an apple-sweetened strawberry preserve recipe. I must warn the super sweet tooths out there that this recipe is definitely not for you. It does, however, have excellent strawberry flavour and the apple just curbs the tartness of the berries without any processed sugars! I suspect I could have added honey or some other natural sugar, but the diet really limits ALL sugars (except chemical) so my hands were tied. These preserves should be frozen as opposed to canned because it does not contain processed sugars as a preservative. At first, I made a single batch of one jar, but JT loved it so much, the jar did not last long. So when I saw strawberries (from Mexico) on sale for $1.88/454 g (1 pound) I jumped! Surprisingly, they have excellent flavour and aroma and the berries really shine through in this preserve.
Apple Sweetened Strawberry Preserves
A KitchenInspirations Original Recipe
Makes about 500 mL (about 2 cups)
Ingredients:
- ~1.8 kg (~4 lbs) strawberries
- 1 cup water
- 4 cinnamon sticks
- 1 apple, chopped finely, peeled, cored (reserved)
Directions:
- Roughly chop strawberries, add them to a heavy bottom saucepan along with the cinnamon sticks, apple and the water. Wrap the apple peel and core tightly in cheesecloth and add to the mix (the peel and core will add natural pectins which will help thicken it).
- Boil until the berries and apple have broken down, most of the water has evaporated and it has thickened. With a fork, mash any berry chunks or apple that have not broken down. Remove the cheesecloth bag, drain and discard.
- Bottle in sterilized jars and refrigerate for immediate use or freeze for future use. The refrigerator preserves are good for about one month, but it probably won’t last. The freezer jams will be good for about 6 months if they are sealed tightly.
I have found that if I don’t eat sugar, fruits taste very sweet and especially when contrasted with spices or nuts. These preserves sound lovely and bravo to you and JT for your efforts!
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Thank you for your kind words Betsy, I find the same since I don’t eat a lot of processed sugar.
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I am not much for sweet food. I like when desserts etc are super tart and less sweet. Don’t tell me Eva that Europe made you lazy. ^.^
Your preserve btw is my kind of thing for breakfast with bread.
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Ha ha ha! Europe didn’t make us lazy, we got lazy AFTER!!! Thank you for your kind words, it’s nice to hear from you again.
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Best of luck with your goal. If it means recipes like this, bonus!
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Thank you kindly, Jeff, I really appreciate your kind words.
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Eva, I know I would like it because when we had our orchard, I make apple sauce without any sugar. You’ve just added strawberries to what I did and the combination has to have a great taste.
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That would have been amazing Karen, I remember your gorgeous orchard. I bet you don’t miss the work though! A Farmers’ Market apples would do the trick, for sure. I really don’t know why people add sugar to applesauce anyway, personally, I find apples quite sweet.
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So true Eva, the orchard was beautiful but taking care of three hundred large trees was a tremendous amount of work for me. I totally agree with you about the sugar, in my way of thinking you should taste the sweet, tart flavor of the apples.
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I wish we had good tasting strawberries all year long… even in the middle of the summer I have to look well and choose the farmers market’s vendors I know. Otherwise they are tasteless (even the local ones). I guess they choose the good-looking resistant varieties over the ones that have taste. How I miss Polish strawberries… (and the ones I tasted from Germany and Hungary were almost equally good!). Sorry for this digression.
Your preserves look delicious and if you say they aren’t super sweet, then they are for me!
Good luck with your diet and congratulations! I hope it helps that both of you follow it. Every time I talk to women who want to lose weight they complain that their family eats high-calorie forbidden food and they cannot stand it, so they stop dieting…
I completely agree it’s more and more difficult with age to lose weight. And we need less and less food but our appetite is still the same… I also have the same sad experience… I’ve never eaten as healthily and as light as now and, yet, it doesn’t make me lose weight.
By the way, have you ever tasted powdered birch “syrup”? It’s called xylitol and I often add it to sweets which don’t require the sugar texture (such as creams, yogurt mousses, etc..). It’s a bit tricky because it’s much sweeter than sugar (the same volume), but I think it’s natural.
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Hi Sissi, thank you for your kind and encouraging words. I’m at about 6kg now so I’m quite happy with the results. Just a few more kgs to go and I’ll be satisfied (and will fit my normal clothes!).
I have not tried powdered birch syrup, but I have used agave which is also sweeter than sugar (or at least, that is what I have heard). I shall look around for this powder, it sounds like a better option than the chemical sugars. My question is why on earth would they call it xylitol? It sounds so fake and like a chemical!
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I think the older I get the less sweet I like things! I think I’d like this 😀
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Hi Lorraine, our taste does change as we age. For me, it’s just as well I never had a sweet tooth, I cannot imagine the weight problem I would have if I did have one!
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Mmmm, sounds delish! Although I can certainly appreciate super sweet things, I actually prefer my sweets more on the austere side. Well, usually. 🙂 I really need to get serious about losing a bit of weight, too. It’s all about quantity, isn’t it?
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Hi John, quantity does have an impact (the simple calories in and calories out) however, the quality of food also plays quite a bit into it. Thank you for your comment.
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When it comes to jams, jellies and preserves, I am not a fan of the overly sweet versions, so yours sounds wonderful. Yeah, the family has been pouting over the Packers’ loss, but those helmet Christmas lights finally came down!! Small blessings 🙂
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I’m so glad you like this recipe Liz, thank you kindly. I was thinking about your removing all the packers kitsch from your classy home, I bet that was a relief!
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A lovely recipe, Eva. Best wishes with the weight loss. In my experience, once you’ve reached 50+ (which, at 58, is me), you need to eat like a sparrow and limit fat, carbs and sweets, even if you exercise regularly. Peter and I have both lost 17kg, with a few more to go in the next few months before we head overseas.
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Hi Liz, thank you for your words of encouragement, it’s not easy this time but I think my body was ready because it’s better than I anticipated. 17 kg is quite the accomplishment, good for you both! I was getting to the point where I refused to look in the mirror (other than my hair and face) so I’m feeling so much better about myself. I still have a little way to go, but at least it’s manageable. Good luck with the rest of your weight loss, I bet you’re going to love being in pictures!
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What a lovely compote (minus the sugary syrup). At the risk of sounding sanctimonious I’m not really interested in conventional jam but I know I would love this play on it. I’m imagining that it would be delicious over warm oatmeal or swirled into some plain greek yogurt as an afternoon snack (now I’m getting hungry 🙂 . I like too that it has a perceptible berry flavor – it sounds truly delicious! I’ll have to give this version a go.
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Hi Kelly, thank you for your kind words. JT often snacks on a small amount of Greek yogurt with the jam swirled into it, which is why I made such a large batch this time. I’m hoping it will last until we have some fruit in season to make more jam. Having it on oatmeal sounds delightful too.
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I too put on a bit of weight in 2016. I started tracking my steps in August and that one change helped me loose 10 pounds. Maybe it’s my personality (I’m very goal oriented) but I found that monitoring my steps made me want to do a little better each day than the day before. It’s almost like a game. GREG
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Hi Greg, I am doing my steps as well (I happen to be goal oriented as well). Sometimes, I don’t have enough steps, so I do a few extra minutes on the treadmill to get my numbers up. I love it when I accumulate more steps than required with very little effort (like walking to do groceries and such). You’re fortunate to have lost 10lbs doing the steps, my metabolism is a little more difficult to coax into losing weight, my husband is like you too.
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Sugar free is absolutely perfect for us. The jam looks great!
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Thanks Angie, it is quite lovely.
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I have never tried strawberry jam with cinnamon before. I’ve used vanilla but now I want to taste apple, strawberry and cinnamon.
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I do hope you try it, it’s pretty tasty.
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Sounds tasty. I bet you could use a quince too for its pectin.
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Quince sounds like an excellent option, I’ll have to keep my eyes open for them when they come into season.
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I’ve seen them locally in Oct.
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Genius, not sure if I can get strawberries that taste of strawberry at this time of year. What an amazing trick with the apple. Love it!
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Hi Dave,
Thank you for your comment. I know about the strawberries, I was actually quite surprised about the aroma and flavour, normally the strawberries this time of year are like eating water! Even the cashier commented at how good they were, everyone is perplexed, in a good way! Apples are incredibly sweet, I’m always surprised when I see sweetened apple sauce.
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